I copied the text below. I looked at a number of the web sites that GOOGLE found and they are basically the same so I thought I would see what I could find for Nikolay Sevastyanov, Head of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. See a post from 11/02/2005.

Will be interesting to see who actually comes up with the money to launch to the Moon and then what comes of it. – LRK -

Russia is planning to mine a rare fuel on the Moon by 2020 with a permanent base and a heavy-cargo transport link, a Russian space official has said.

"We are planning to build a permanent base on the Moon by 2015 and by 2020 we can begin the industrial-scale delivery ... of the rare isotope Helium-3," Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of the Energia space corporation, was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying at an academic conference on Wednesday.

The International Space Station (ISS) would play a key role in the project and a regular transport relay to the Moon would be established with the help of the planned Kliper spaceship and the Parom, a space capsule intended to tug heavy cargo containers around space, Sevastyanov said.

Helium-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of helium that can be used in nuclear fusion.

Rare on earth but plentiful on the Moon, it is seen by some experts as an ideal fuel because it is powerful, non-polluting and generates almost no radioactive by-product.

Astronauts will land the Moon with spades to dig for helium-311/02/2005 17:02

A few kilograms of the lunar substance will be enough to start a thermonuclear electric power station

Head of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, Nikolay Sevastyanov, said the other day that the International Space Station was getting its second wind and it got new objectives. The ISS is supposed to be used as a platform to assemble complexes sent to the Moon.

"One of the station docks can wonderfully do for receiving carriers with lunar blocks. This may be a lateral dock of Zvezda and Zarya modules or additional platforms on the propulsion modules," representatives of the corporation said.

Ordinary booster rockets like Progress or Soyuz are supposed to deliver components of a lunar ship from the surface to the ISS. A flight to the Moon will require one or several stages to pull the complex to the Moon, and one spaceship for astronauts. Primarily, three pioneers will be enough to reach the Moon, circle the satellite and then get back to the surface. Subsequently, the number of astronauts may considerably increase depending upon the results of the test flight. It is not ruled out that astronauts will even have a chance to land on the Moon during the second flight.

Today, experts consider opportunities of mining helium-3, the key mineral which can be found on the Moon. The Rocket and Space Corporation Energia states that this new fuel may be even more effective than traditional ones. A few kilograms of the lunar substance will be enough to start a thermonuclear electric power station. Delivery of helium-3 from the Moon to the surface will return great profits. To begin the mining of helium-3 on the Moon, astronauts must first of all build a base for miners to live and work in. Experts already know the exact location of helium-3 fields on the Moon. A special machine will be going about the lunar surface; it will dig, warm the lunar soil, regolith, and then extract helium-3. It is planned to build such a base in one of the lunar seas.

Europeans, Americans and even Chinese also want to participate in the project. November 1, head of Russia's Roskosmos, Anatoly Perminov, came to China to conduct talks about the future of Russian-Chinese space cooperation.

"In all likelihood, space probes will be the only things of ours that endure after our species is gone and our planet utterly changed -- a few inert, pitted machines will be the sole clues that we ever existed, and the ancient messages they carry our only chance to explain who we were. It's vanishingly unlikely that any being will ever find the Pioneers, Voyagers or the New Horizons probe in the billion-odd years during which their messages will remain readable. But though imagining such a discovery borders on an act of faith, it's not impossible. And since it isn't, shouldn't the only trace of ourselves be something more substantive than an unbelievably ancient PR campaign? Don't we owe ourselves a final testament that's something more than space spam?"

-------------------------------------------------------------

Hard to believe that it is already January 24, 2006. See other items around this day from JPL Space Calendar clip below. There are a lot of links in the Wall Street Journal story as well so I will leave it to you to check that out as well.

=============================================================Anothr snip for one of Larry Klaes’ posts. Thanks Larry. – LRK -------------------------------------------------------------->>Tuesday, 24-Jan-2006 - Latest from ESA Science and Technology web site>>COSMIC VISION>>Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 is the roadmap by which the ESA Science>Directorate is planing its future missions. In the first of four>articles one of the key themes is presented.>>+ COSMIC VISION 2015- 2025: PLANETS AND LIFE>http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38646>>>>=====================================================>SOLAR SYSTEM MISSIONS>Updated mission status reports are available for the Venus Express and>SMART-1 missions.>>+ START OF SECOND PAYLOAD POINTING CAMPAIGN>http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38648>>+ ONGOING LUNAR OPERATIONS>http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38649>>=====================================================>KEEP IN TOUCH>>+ SCITECH RSS>Subscribe to SciTech's RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to get the>latest updates delivered directly to your desktop.>http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=37599>>+ SCITECH SCREENSAVER>>Don't forget to download the SciTech Screensaver a multi-facetted>application that allows you to keep abreast of status reports, news and>announcements of events taking place at ESA Science.>http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34651>=====================================================

LOS ANGELES - An unmanned NASA spacecraft intended to visit two of the solarsystem's largest asteroids will not launch this year, as the space agencydeals with cost overruns and technical issues.

The planned summer launch of the Dawn spacecraft has been indefinitelypostponed, said Andrew Dantzler, director of NASA's solar system division.

Mission managers were ordered to halt work on Dawn last fall while anindependent review team led by the space agency's Marshall Space FlightCenter assessed the project. The team is expected to present its findings toNASA on Jan. 27.snip-------------------------------------------------------------

Read the articles. Looks like not enough money. Problems encountered,tanks that would hold the xenon for the ion engine not meeting specks andrupturing during tests.

A DISCOVERY mission, capped at $371 and asking for another $40 million, gotput on hold to look at the books. Doesn't look like it is going to come outof hold.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/index.aspDawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solarsystem's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largestprotoplanets remaining intact since their formations. Ceres and Vesta residein the extensive zone between Mars and Jupiter together with many othersmaller bodies, called the asteroid belt. Each has followed a very differentevolutionary path constrained by the diversity of processes that operatedduring the first few million years of solar system evolution.

Dawn has much to offer the general public. It brings images of variedlandscapes on previously unseen worlds to the public including mountains,canyons, craters, lava flows, polar caps and, possibly ancient lakebeds,streambeds and gullies. Students can follow the mission over an entire K-12experience as the mission is built, cruises to Vesta and Ceres and returnsdata. The public will be able to participate through the Solar SystemAmbassadors and through participation on the web.snip-------------------------------------------------------------

LOS ANGELES Jan 21, 2006 — A NASA spacecraft built to explore two of thesolar system's largest asteroids won't launch this year because the spaceagency is dealing with cost overruns and technical issues in the project.The planned summer launch of the Dawn spacecraft has been indefinitelypostponed, said Andrew Dantzler, director of NASA's solar system division.Mission managers had been ordered to halt work on Dawn last fall while theproject was assessed by an independent review team, which is expected topresent its findings to NASA on Jan. 27.

In mid-October, the Dawn mission team was asked by NASA Headquarters tocease all work except that which was critical to maintaining the viabilityof the Dawn mission to launch on a delayed schedule, still achieving all ofits scientific objectives. This action was taken in response to concernsabout the availability of funding in FY2006 to cover any problems that mightarise during environmental and performance testing, particularly with regardto several pieces of subsystem hardware perceived to have experiencedsignificant problems. The chief items of concern are the Power ProcessingUnits (PPUs) that provide the high voltage power to the thrusters in the ionpropulsion system, one of the redundant Attitude Control Electronics (ACE)boxes, and the xenon tank.

Concern regarding the flight xenon tank arose because two qualificationtanks ruptured at lower than expected pressure during testing, instigating athorough review of the integrity of the flight tank. The Dawn team chose toreduce the xenon load in the flight tank from 450 to 425 kg to increase thesafety margin (reducing a generous fuel load margin but not affecting thescience return). A recommendation from the group charged with reviewing theDawn tank, chartered by the NASA independent Technical Authority guidelines,is expected in early December.

An ambitious NASA mission to visit two of the solar system's largestasteroids has been placed on hold while investigators assess budget andtechnical problems.

The mission, called Dawn, was scheduled to launch in June 2006 to studyasteroids Vesta and Ceres. But mission controllers have been told to stoptheir preparations while the investigation is conducted. This process isexpected to take several months but the mission's launch window lasts over ayear, so the delay should not affect the spacecrafts chance of reaching itstargets.

"Rather than just continue and hope for the best […] we at headquartersthought it would be a good idea to stand down," says Andrew Dantzler, thedirector of the Solar System Division at NASA headquarters in Washington DC,US.

Dantzler says the project has experienced more technical failures thannormal and mission managers are working to determine if there is a problemwith the way the programme is being run. In addition, the project is alreadyrunning 10% to 16% over its projected budget of $373 million.

The mission has also begun falling behind schedule. The spacecraft is stillofficially scheduled to launch as early as 17 June 2006 but, before thestand down, the launch date was already expected to slip to August 2006. "Itwasn’t clear that we were even going to make August," Dantzler admits.

The Dawn Mission is a NASA unmanned space mission that will send an orbitingspace probe to examine the asteroids Ceres and Vesta. Dawn will be the firstmission to enter into orbit around two different planetary bodies other thanthe Earth and Moon.[edit]

Mission

The mission's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of thesolar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largestprotoplanets remaining intact since their formation. Ceres and Vesta havemany contrasting characteristics that are thought to have resulted from themforming in two different regions of the early solar system; Ceres istheorized to have experienced a "cool and wet" formation that may have leftit with subsurface water, and Vesta is theorized to have experienced a "hotand dry" formation that resulted in a differentiated interior and surfacevulcanism.

Dawn will be launched on a Delta 7925H rocket. To cruise from Earth to itstargets it will use three DS1 heritage Xenon ion thrusters (firing only oneat a time) to take it in a long outward spiral. The planned chronology is:

An extended mission in which Dawn explores other asteroids after Ceres isalso possible.

The Dawn mission team is led by UCLA space scientist Christopher T. Russell.Orbital Sciences Corporation will construct the spacecraft, and NASA's JetPropulsion Laboratory will provide the ion engines and management of theoverall flight system development. The German Aerospace Center will providethe framing camera, and the Institute for Space Astrophysics in Rome willprovide the mapping spectrometer. A laser altimeter will be provided by theNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, a gamma ray spectrometer from the DOE LosAlamos National Laboratory, and a magnetometer will be provided by UCLA.

Delaysnip

============================================================================================================================WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK==============================================================

In his January 14, 2004 speech at NASA Headquarters proclaiming a new visionof United States space exploration, President Bush announced a return to theMoon by 2020 with a renewed commitment of lunar exploration. Notwithstandingthe political (read: funding) minefields that await, future astronautsreturning to the moon will most certainly have a lunar rover to fulfilltheir tasks. How different would it really be from the 1972 model? To getthe answer, a bit of history is in order first.

When we go back, and we better, what will the next movers look like? Howwill you climb down into a dark crater or climb a mountain? How will yousift the fines for minerals or dig into a lava tube? What will excavateyour trench for you lunar lab?

What will be the power source for your motivators?

What will your driving clothes look like?

Just think what could be accomplished if we put down our battle axes andstarted designing tools to develop the Moon, asteroids, and other planets.A lot of ideas on napkins and discussions around the kitchen table.

Who: High school students race Friday, April 7; college students raceSaturday, April 8. Prizes awarded for the fastest vehicles and to the teamswith the best technical solutions.

When: Friday and Saturday, April 7-8, 2006

Where: U.S. Space and Rocket Center, One Tranquility Base, Huntsville, Ala.To attend: To attend, media should contact the Marshall Public and EmployeeCommunications Office at: (256) 544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. EST Friday,March 31.

NASA gives students from around the world an opportunity to design, buildand race their own human-powered "moonbuggies." The event was inspired bythe NASA designers of the Lunar Roving Vehicle used by Apollo astronauts.Students race their own buggies over a half-mile course. For supportingmaterials and photographs from the 2005 event, visit:

The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was an electric vehicle designed to operatein the low-gravity vacuum of the Moon and to be capable of traversing thelunar surface, allowing the Apollo astronauts to extend the range of theirsurface extravehicular activities. Three LRVs were driven on the Moon, oneon Apollo 15 by astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin, one on Apollo 16 byJohn Young and Charles Duke, and one on Apollo 17 by Gene Cernan andHarrison Schmitt. Each rover was used on three traverses, one per day overthe three day course of each mission. On Apollo 15 the LRV was driven atotal of 27.8 km in 3 hours, 2 minutes of driving time. The longest singletraverse was 12.5 km and the maximum range from the LM was 5.0 km. On Apollo16 the vehicle traversed 26.7 km in 3 hours 26 minutes of driving. Thelongest traverse was 11.6 km and the LRV reached a distance of 4.5 km fromthe LM. On Apollo 17 the rover went 35.9 km in 4 hours 26 minutes totaldrive time. The longest traverse was 20.1 km and the greatest range from theLM was 7.6 km.snip

Working together before we were working together. One of the threads ofcommon heritage that ties together the people of Boeing is also one of thewatershed events of the 20th century: landing a human on the moon. More than30 years before the people of Boeing, Boeing North American (the formerRockwell aerospace units) and McDonnell Douglas came together as The BoeingCompany, they worked together to make possible Neil Armstrong's first stepon the moon on July 20, 1969. Just as the International Space Station isdoing today at Boeing, Apollo 11 brought together the great energy, grandvisions and strong passion of Boeing people working on a U.S. space programthat was going full tilt. These people took great pride in being part ofthis adventure of a lifetime.

>From October 1968 through July 1969, the United States launched five Apollomissions: Apollo 7 made the first flight to Earth orbit; Apollo 8 made thefirst orbit of the moon; Apollo 9 and 10 tested the Lunar Module; Apollo 11landed men on the moon. In 10 months, the great team of more than 300,000workers from 20,000 companies in 50 states focused their innovation, daringand speed on the unprecedented history-making effort.

Boeing built the first stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle, integrated theoverall 363-foot rocket, and designed the Lunar Roving Vehicle. NorthAmerican Rockwell designed and built the Saturn V second stage, the Command& Service Modules, and its Rocketdyne division built all the main enginesused on the Saturn V. McDonnell Douglas built the Saturn V's third stage.

Liftoff!

July 16, 1969

"We Came In Peace For All Mankind... "

The people of Boeing continue to work at the forefront of space achievementby imagining and planning for amazing exploits of the next century.We work toward the commercial development of space, which will be driven bylow-cost access to orbit.

We dare to dream of further exploration of our solar system and the farreaches of the universe. Today as one company, Boeing employees lead the wayin space, based on more than 50 years of building the very foundation thathas pioneered America's space efforts.

The director of NASA Ames Research Center has announced his resignation in amemorandum sent to center employees earlier this week.

G. Scott Hubbard has been director of the Moffett Field facility since 2002,managing 4,000 employees and a budget of approximately $775 million. He hasworked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since 1987 andwas the originator of the 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission in which the roboticvehicle Sojourner transmitted new images of the Earth's closest planetaryneighbor.

In his memo, Hubbard said that new NASA Administrator Michael Griffin wantsto name his own director at Ames.

"As is often the case when there is any change of administration, the newleader wants his own team. In discussions with Mike Griffin before theholidays, we agreed that the future of Ames should be set by a centerdirector of the administrator's choosing,'' Hubbard said.

Ames spokesman Mike Mewhinney would not comment on Hubbard's departurebeyond confirming the authenticity of his memo, which was posted on theunofficial NASA watchdog Web site at http://www.nasawatch.com .Ames plans to issue a news release next week about Hubbard. The naming ofthe new Ames director will be announced by NASA headquarters in Washington,D.C., according to Mewhinney.

==============================================================WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK==============================================================

Thursday, January 19, 2006

New Horizons on its way - how did you watch?January 19, 2006

Good afternoon,

The New Horizons launch was successful after a few delays for cloud cover. - LRK -

Interesting how one may need to multi-task between doing the dishes, washing the clothes, flipping through TV Channels and looking on the laptop with Windows Media and RealPlayer for the launch of New Horizons.

Add to that, Sangad (wife) wanting to cut my hair. :-)(She did that after the launch and I looked out of the corner of my eye at the continuing tracking of the in orbit sequences and final kick and separation of spacecraft. )

I viewed NASA TV with Windows Media and RealPlayer and on a html page with a web cam at JHU/APL.

The Windows Media was about 30 seconds behind the RealPlayer video but had better audio on my laptop.- LRK -

I managed to find a few news stations on cable that caught the launch just as it was finally ready to happen and here again the in studio announcers had stupid questions of their launch side reporters. :-(- LRK -

I think we have our work cut out to educate the general public about space exploration and the benefits it has.

The NASA web sites are trying to add content for the students coming up through the ranks. We will need new scientists and engineers and some potential politicians that favor space, if it is all going to happen. IMHO

"Starting Monday, Jan. 31, and continuing through Friday, Feb. 4, 2005, the main auditorium at NASA Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley, will be 'transformed' into the Mississippi River Delta and Louisiana's Cajun country to host 5,200 Bay area students and teachers scheduled to participate in the 2005 JASON Expedition: Disappearing Wetlands."

Editor's note: You'd think ARC PAO would want to drum up maximum visibility for this event. Apparently not: They only sent this media advisory out with 4 days advance notice (2 of which are on a weekend). Also, with 5,200 students participating in a NASA event, you'd think that NASA's Education Office would be heavily promoting this event. Again, the answer is no. The last "news" on the Education website at NASA HQ is dated 15 Jan 2005. No mention is made of this event.

"NASA seeks an unfunded collaboration with a commercial or non-profit organization to define, organize and execute a nationwide project-oriented competition for K-12 students in U.S. schools to select a name for the Node 2 element of the International Space Station (ISS) to be launched on a future Space Shuttle flight."

There is no mention of this national education project on the Education website either.

And then there are these College-level education awards announced today as well:

"NASA has selected 32 consortia in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. They will receive $3 million in awards this year for aerospace work force development to support the Vision for Space Exploration."

No mention of this announcement either. It is hard to imagine how you are going to excite students - and educators - when so many people at NASA PAO and its Education office are asleep at the wheel.-------------------------------------------------------------

New Horizons launch press conference in progress:+ Watch NASA TVhttp://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.htmlAfter launch aboard a Lockheed-Martin Atlas V rocket, the New Horizons spacecraft set out on a journey to the edge of the solar system. Liftoff occurred Jan. 19, 2006 at 2:00:00 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. New Horizons is headed for a distant rendezvous with the mysterious planet Pluto almost a decade from now.As the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon Charon, New Horizons looks to unlock one of the solar system's last, great planetary secrets. The New Horizons spacecraft will cross the entire span of the solar system and conduct flyby studies of Pluto and Charon in 2015. The seven science instruments on the piano-sized probe will shed light on the bodies' surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres.snip

Trajectory:• To Pluto via Jupiter Gravity Assist (first 17 days of window)• Direct to Pluto (last 12 days of window)

snip

The VoyageEarly Cruise: Assuming liftoff during the primary launch window in January 2006, the first 13 months include spacecraft and instrument checkouts, instrument calibrations, trajectory correction maneuvers, and rehearsals for the Jupiter encounter.Jupiter Encounter: Closest approach scheduled to occur between Feb. 25- March 2, 2007. Moving about 47,000 miles per hour (about 21 kilometers per second), New Horizons would fly 3 to 4 times closer to Jupiter than the Cassini spacecraft, coming within 31.7-32.4 Jupiter radii of the large planet.

By Irene KlotzCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The world's first mission to Pluto blasted into space on Thursday on an Atlas 5 unmanned rocket to begin a 9 1/2-year journey to the only unexplored planet in the solar system.

After two days of delays due to poor weather and a power outage, the 197-foot tall (60-meter) rocket, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., lifted off at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

High winds at the Florida launch site forced the first scrub of the launch of the New Horizons spacecraft on Tuesday, followed on Wednesday by a storm-triggered power outage at the mission control center in Laurel, Maryland.

With an unprecedented five solid-fuel strap-on boosters, the rocket sent the relatively tiny spacecraft into space faster than any object launched by man before. It sprinted into the sky and quickly disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean.

"The five solid rocket boosters are burning just fine, sending the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to the very edge of our solar system," said launch commentator Bruce Buckingham, shortly after the liftoff.

The launch sparked a small protest and was overseen by the Department of Energy because the spacecraft carried 24 pounds (10.9 kg) of radioactive plutonium that will decay over time, providing heat that the probe's generator can turn into electricity to power instruments and systems.

NASA has used the non-weapons grade plutonium, processed into ceramic pellets, for 24 previous science missions which, like New Horizons, travel too far to tap the sun's energy for solar power.

NASA chose the largest expendable rocket in the U.S. fleet to get the New Horizons spacecraft moving as quickly as possible on its 3 billion mile (4.9 billion-km) journey to Pluto. After additional boosts by two upper-stage motors, the probe was expected to move at 36,000 mph (57,934 kph).

Next year, the spacecraft is expected to pick up an additional 9,000 mph (14,483 kph) by bouncing off Jupiter's massive gravity field for a slingshot maneuver toward Pluto. Even so, it will take New Horizons until July 2015 to reach Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.

Pluto is the largest and best known of a relatively new type of planetary body called a Kuiper Belt object. The Kuiper Belt is located beyond Neptune's orbit, which is 30 times farther away from the sun than Earth. It contains frozen objects believed to be leftover remains from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

While not much is known about Pluto, by the time the probe arrives, scientists may have a better idea of what to look for. A capsule containing samples of a Kuiper Belt-formed comet were returned to Earth on Sunday.

"For all the ideas and theories that people might have, we have some real ground truth," said University of Washington's Donald Brownlee, the principal investigator for the so-called Stardust mission.

"We have some actual samples of the material that the solar system was formed from," he said.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has selected SGT, Inc., Greenbelt, Md., for award of the Geophysics, Geodynamics and Space Geodesy Support contract.The contractor provides support for ongoing missions such as the Laser Geodynamic Satellite and new missions like the Mercury Messenger and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The work includes but is not limited to instrument and software development and maintenance; scientific data analysis; associated technical and administrative work. This contract supports NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Science Mission Directorate, Greenbelt, Md.

SGT will receive a cost-plus award fee, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity task order contract with a minimum value of $1 million and a maximum value of $39 million. The contract has a five-year ordering period; however, individual efforts may extend beyond five years.The principal work will be performed at Goddard, Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., and at the contractor's facility.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home=============================================================WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK=============================================================

The agency hoped the problem would be resolved in time for the next launchwindow between 1:08 p.m. and 3:07 p.m. on Thursday. NASA has until February14 to launch the probe, but postponements could add up to 5 years to itsjourney.

The earliest that New Horizons can reach Pluto, if it launches in time toslingshot itself off the gravity field of Jupiter, is July 2015.snip-------------------------------------------------------------

Folks on the InsideKSC group said that CNN reported the scrub, but FOX newswas reporting that "NASA will try again this afternoon..."

I wonder how connected the news reporters are.

Yesterday MSNBC reporter said that New Horizons had nuclear generators likethe ones that powered the LASER Reflector the Apollo Astronauts used to beamLASERs to Earth.

The Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiment was deployed on Apollo 11, 14,and 15. It consists of a series of corner-cube reflectors, which are aspecial type of mirror with the property of always reflecting an incominglight beam back in the direction it came from. A similar device was alsoincluded on the Soviet Union's Lunakhod 2 spacecraft. These reflectors canbe illuminated by laser beams aimed through large telescopes on Earth. Thereflected laser beam is also observed with the telescope, providing ameasurement of the round-trip distance between Earth and the Moon. This isthe only Apollo experiment that is still returning data from the Moon. Manyof these measurements have been made by McDonald Observatory in Texas. From1969 to 1985, they were made on a part-time basis using the McDonaldObservatory 107-inch telescope. Since 1985, these observations have beenmade using a dedicated 30-inch telescope. Additional measurements have beenmade by observatories in Hawaii, California, France, Australia, and Germany.snip-----------------------------------------------------------

What chance do we have of getting to the Moon if we don't even know what wedid while we were there?

The New Horizons launch scrubbed.-------------------------------------------------------------Waiting for the New Horizons launch. Several delays due to winds. Will seeif it gets off while writing this.http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.htmlhttp://www.insideksc.com/Now delay because of DSN network at Antigua.New time 19:50 Z (2:50 PM EST)New time 20:05 ZNew time 20:23 ZRed line monitor - launch scrubbed today. :-(-------------------------------------------------------------

Well that was earlier today while writing another e-mail.

Window opens eight minutes earlier tomorrow and weather will still be aproblem.

So a small wait to get to Pluto, 2015.

Will we be on the Moon by then?

If you put together a spacecraft in orbit around Earth, one module at atime, will the winds in Florida be a problem? Will a day or two wait forthe next module be a problem? Will the suspense be something the 6:00 PMnews pick up on?

Was the count down on your TV?

Did you have to compete with a game station using the TV or was it even on?

By using an RSS reader to subscribe to any of the feeds, you will receivethe latest news, information and weekly radio programs directly from thePlanetary Society web site.http://www.planetary.org/misc/rss.html-----------------------------------------------------

What would help your neighbors get there kids into science classes toprepare them for a lunar enterprise?

What written word will grip your gut and cause you to dream about the stars?(If I was drawing a cartoon they would be made up of incomplete lines thatyour brain would be caught up in completing. How do I paint a word picturethat catches your imagination and takes you to the Moon?)

In its day, Pioneer 10 was the fastest manmade object to leave Earth.------------------------------------------------------------http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PN10&11.htmlsnipPioneer 10 was launched on 2 March 1972 on top of an Atlas/Centaur/TE364-4launch vehicle. The launch marked the first use of the Atlas-Centaur as athree-stage launch vehicle. The third stage was required to rocket Pioneer10 to the speed of 51,810 kilometers per hour (32,400 mph) needed for theflight to Jupiter. This made Pioneer the fastest manmade object to leave theEarth, fast enough to pass the Moon in 11 hours and to cross the Mars orbit,about 80 million kilometers (50 million miles) away, in just 12 weeks.snip------------------------------------------------------------

Hopefully tomorrow you will see a new record set.

------------------------------------------------------------http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=137snipKSC-06PD-0076 (01/16/2006) --- KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. – On Complex 41 atCape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Atlas V expendable launch vehicle withthe New Horizons spacecraft settles into position with the launcherumbilical tower on the pad. The liftoff is scheduled for 1:24 p.m. EST Jan.17. After its launch aboard the Atlas V, the compact, 1,050-poundpiano-sized probe will get a boost from a kick-stage solid propellant motorfor its journey to Pluto. New Horizons will be the fastest spacecraft everlaunched, reaching lunar orbit distance in just nine hours and passingJupiter 13 months later. Read more...http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=27711snip------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, January 16, 2006

January 16, 2006Space - What do you want to know? - Where do we go from here?

Good day,

Stardust capsule drop successful. - LRK -

Our local Tracy paper is thin. Only 28 pages today with 6 pages dedicated toour local sports. The Stardust success is on page 15 just before the 6pages of classified ads and is a slim 4 inch high column.

The Sacramento Bee is the big paper with a five different sections. Thecaption "Space capsule comes bearing comet dust" is on page A4 in the middleof a big page sandwiched between "Rep. Ney to temporarily step aside aspanel chief", (in large bold type) and "Sego Mine victims remembered asservice" in normal bold type. The only thing that catches your eye is theflare, streak in the sky of the entering capsule.

Maybe would have gotten more notice if it had smashed.

Well your viewing may vary.- LRK -

The Boston Globe has a more encouraging article about an exciting yearcoming up. Copied that below as well.- LRK -

A towering giant of a rocket sits quietly at Launch Complex 41 at theKennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is 60 meters (200 feet)tall and, with five solid fuel booster rockets attached at its base, weighs575,000 kilograms (1.26 million pounds). It is an Atlas V, NASA's mightiestlauncher. At 1:24 p.m. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow, if all goes well,the sleeping giant will come to life in a deafening roar of fire and smoke.Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, it will rise into the sky,shedding its solid boosters and then its first, second, and third stages insuccession. By the time the sound and fury subside, only a small spacecraftwill remain, streaking silently through the emptiness of interstellar space.

So will begin the 9-year voyage of New Horizons, the first space craftdestined to visit Pluto and the Kuiper belt.snip-------------------------------------------------------------

Once again I have copied the links from "The Space Review" post edited byJeff Foust. If you subscribe, I apologize for overloading your senses butwe have been talking about Helium-3 and the article about the interview withGerald Kulcinski caught my eye. Other subjects we have commented on arethere as well. You may want to look at some of them.- LRK -

See if this catches your eye.- LRK --------------------------------------------------------------Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review:A fascinating hour with Gerald Kulcinski---Gerald Kulcinski has spent the last two decades at the University ofWisconsin exploring the potential for fusion using helium-3 minedfrom the Moon. Eric Hedman talks with him about his fusion researchas well as his new position on the NASA Advisory Council.http://www.thespacereview.com/article/536/1-------------------------------------------------------------

I have copied one paragarph here from what Eric R. Hedman wrote about thetalk with Kulcinski.- LRK -

-------------------------------------------------------------snipI recently received an email response to one of my articles from a teacherthat was dead set against human spaceflight. He told me that he had neverhad a student tell him they were inspired by any of the manned spaceflights.He didn’t believe that inspiring children was a valid argument for the spaceprogram. When I related this to Professor Kulcinski he put it in contextwith what he is seeing among incoming students. Many of the nuclearengineering students have a clear vision of why they want to be nuclearengineers. Some of the students have a desire to help provide clean safepower. Others are interested in nuclear power systems for spaceapplications, including propulsion. In nuclear engineering there are morestudents that want to be in the program than there are slots for them. Bycomparison, in mechanical and electrical engineering there are fewerqualified applicants than available slots. One of the ideas ProfessorKulcinski thinks may work to bring more students into engineering and thesciences is to get better math teachers by paying them significantly morethan teachers of other subjects. The best engineers I know are not motivatedprimarily by money, but by what they want to do with their lives.Nevertheless, they still do like money. I believe the same is true aboutteachers, so I don’t know if this would work. I haven’t as of yet heard ofanything better to try.snip-------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to see a future that will be worth being excited about. Havingsome goals that will benefit all seems like something to strive for.

Learning how to open up our minds to the expanse of space just seems likesomething I can support so we will continue to see what we can find ofinterest. Suggestions appreciated.

Take a look at what Jeff Foust is doing.- LRK --------------------------------------------------------------http://www.thespacereview.com/index.htmlWhat is The Space Review?The Space Review is an online publication devoted to in-depth articles,commentary, and reviews regarding all aspects of space exploration: science,technology, policy, business, and more. more infohttp://www.thespacereview.com/about.html

For some reason, they have been unable or unwilling to troubleshoot theproblem, which means I'm stuck with this crappy reception for however longit takes them to pull their collective finger out. I'm definitely going tobe looking into some way to get satellite again, but there's no way that'shappening for several days. Barring a miracle, I won't be getting anythinghere tomorrow.

Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review:A fascinating hour with Gerald Kulcinski---Gerald Kulcinski has spent the last two decades at the University ofWisconsin exploring the potential for fusion using helium-3 minedfrom the Moon. Eric Hedman talks with him about his fusion researchas well as his new position on the NASA Advisory Council.http://www.thespacereview.com/article/536/1

Negative symbolism, or why America will continue to fly astronauts---The political costs associated with ending human spaceflight played amajor role in the Nixon Administration's decision to fly the finalApollo missions and approve the shuttle program Dwayne Day examinesthis decision to explain why it is unlikely a future president wouldterminate a manned space program.http://www.thespacereview.com/article/535/1

EU-US chronowar---Europe is billing Galileo as a more accurate satellite navigationsystem than the existing American GPS system. Taylor Dinermandiscusses how one particular technology decision could give Galileothe upper hand.http://www.thespacereview.com/article/534/1

The effects of export control on the space industry---Since the enactment of more stringent export controls for commercialspacecraft, satellite manufacturers in the US have lost considerablebusiness. Ryan Zelnio measures how big of an effect those exportcontrols have had on the US space industry.http://www.thespacereview.com/article/533/1

A peek behind the scenes of The Space Show (part 2)---Dr. David Livingston combined expertise in business and a passion forspace into a popular radio show. In the conclusion of his two-partinterview, Mark Trulson asks Livingston how The Space Show came intobeing and his plans for the future.http://www.thespacereview.com/article/532/1

snip

We appreciate any feedback you may have about these articles as well asany other questions, comments, or suggestions about The Space Review.We're also actively soliciting articles to publish in future issues, soif you have an article or article idea that you think would be ofinterest, please email me.

In 2006, space odysseys across the solar systemBy David L. Chandler, Globe Correspondent January 16, 2006

When it comes to exploring the solar system around us, there's never been ayear like the one that is beginning to unfold. A dozen different planets,moons, comets, and asteroids will be coming under close scrutiny by new orcontinuing missions or will have spacecraft sent their way over the courseof this year -- more than in any previous year.

''It's a golden age of planetary exploration," said Charles Elachi, directorof NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where most US planetarymissions are planned and run.

''Things have turned around" after a long dry spell in exploration duringthe '80s and early '90s, said Maria Zuber, head of the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology's department of earth, atmospheric, and planetarysciences. ''I can't remember any time in the past when we've had so manythings going on simultaneously."

This year's missions will study the smallest and the largest objects in thesolar system, as well as the closest and the most distant from the sun, thehottest and coldest, the youngest and the most ancient.

The first step in this planetary odyssey took place yesterday in the Utahdesert, where a capsule full of particles from a comet and from the depthsof space parachuted back to earth -- an event made more suspenseful by thecrash-landing last year of the Genesis capsule using a similar reentrysystem.

The capsule, called Stardust, plunged through the dusty bright tail of cometWild 2 last year and collected bits of the matter that comets spew out asthe sun's heat boils away their volatile surface materials. But it alsocollected bits of interstellar dust, perhaps the most ancient samples humanswill ever see without leaving the solar system altogether.

Step two of this banner year may happen as soon as tomorrow: the launch ofNew Horizons, a probe headed to the outermost part of the solar system. Thespacecraft will be NASA's fastest ever -- it will whiz past the moon justnine hours after launch.

It will be the first probe ever sent to Pluto, the only planet neverexplored by spacecraft, and also the first to fly by the Kuiper BeltObjects, the icy worlds that orbit out beyond Pluto. These objects are sofar from our sun that from their vantage point, the sun looks like any otherstar.

Along the way, New Horizons will use the gravity of Jupiter to speed itspath to Pluto -- and in the process will get the closest views of the planetsince the Galileo mission in the '90s. New Horizons will be able to beamdata back much faster from Jupiter than Pluto because it will be so muchcloser to Earth -- so the mission will actually deliver more scientific dataabout Jupiter in 2007 than it will about its primary targets in 2015 andbeyond, said the mission's chief scientist, Alan Stern of the SouthwestResearch Institute in Colorado.

And because Jupiter's weather system is always changing, with storms thatcan last centuries, observing its changes over time is expected to provideimportant new information about our solar system's largest planet.

Meanwhile, nearly every other part of the solar system will come underscrutiny, too.

''It's like 16th-century Europe with ships going to different lands andcoming back with great stories and great adventures," said Louis Friedman,director of the nonprofit Planetary Society, an advocacy group forexploration.

Working outward from the center of the solar system, here are the year'shighlights:

Our sun will get some new attention as a pair of US probes called STEREOwill be launched to provide constant 3-D imaging of our own star. The imageswill offer an early-warning system of solar flares that could disrupt radiocommunications and power grids and endanger astronauts in space.

NASA's Messenger probe, now en route to Mercury, will make a close flyby ofVenus this year. At around the same time, the European Space Agency's VenusExpress mission will also reach the second planet and go into orbit for themost detailed long-term observation ever attempted.

The craft, a near-replica of the European Space Agency's highly successfulMars Express orbiter, will begin a 486-day mapping mission of Venus inApril, using a whole suite of cameras and instruments to study theperpetually cloud-shrouded world. Venus is nearly Earth's twin in size butis hellishly hot because of its thick atmosphere, which traps heat.

The moon is also coming under scrutiny, with Japan's Lunar-A mission set fora possible launch this year and Europe's SMART-1 continuing its close-upobservations in lunar orbit.

The solar system's most intensively explored planet will get even morefirepower aimed its way this year. The Mars rovers are still plugging awaynearly two years after their warranties ran out, and two ongoing NASA andone European orbiters are constantly photographing the details of the fourthplanet's surface; these will be joined by yet another craft in March.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will provide more detail than ever aboutsurface composition and topography, allowing for a much more accurateunderstanding of potential landing sites for future missions and ultimatelyhuman visits. This orbiter ''will send back more data from Mars than all theother Mars missions put together," Zuber said.

NASA is scheduled to send off a probe in July, called Dawn, which will orbittwo different large asteroids, Vesta and Ceres, to study them in detail.Asteroids exist in several different types, and understanding theirdifferences could be crucial if one is ever discovered on a collision coursewith Earth.

The Cassini probe will continue to provide detailed scrutiny of Saturn andits system of rings and moons. This year Cassini will focus more intenselyon the solar system's second-largest and most interesting moon, Titan -- theonly body other than Earth known to have an ongoing cycle of evaporation,rainfall, and flowing rivers. Scientists are hoping these fly-bys willfinally reveal signs of actual liquid seas on the surface, which have beenexpected but so far not detected.

Planetary scientists agree that this will be a banner year. But some alsosound a note of caution, having seen early years of active explorationfollowed by a long dry spell of inactivity.

Friedman of the Planetary Society says that the release in a few weeks ofthe federal budget for the next fiscal year could set the tone for futureexploration. One key issue for him is whether a mission to Jupiter's moonEuropa will be funded.

Europa, which scientists believe has a frozen-over ocean, is the likeliestplace in the solar system -- besides Earth and Mars -- where life could havestarted.

That mission is ''like a watershed," Friedman said. ''I view that as alitmus test for the future of planetary exploration."

Also, the MIT Museum will hold a forum Thursday at 7:30 p.m. about thelanding system on the Mars Exploration Rovers at the museum, 265Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Call 617-253-4444 or go tohttp://web.mit.edu/museum/ for more information.

Jan. 12, 2006 — In a new project called Stardust@home, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, researchers will invite Internet users to help themsearch for grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA's Stardustspacecraft, scheduled to drop its light load of dust to Earth on Sunday.

The project takes its inspiration from SETI@home, another U.C. Berkeleyprogram that combines the idle processing power of millions ofInternet-connected PCs into a huge supercomputer that is used to crunch datain the search for extraterrestrial life.

Unlike the passive search for ETs, however, Stardust@home aims to enlistthousands of volunteers to help sift through the microscopic pictures thescientists will take of the spacecraft's cosmic payload.-------------------------------------------------------------http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/01/10_dust.shtmlPublic to look for dust grains in Stardust detectorsBy Robert Sanders, Media Relations 10 January 2006

BERKELEY – Astronomy buffs who jumped at the chance to use their homecomputers in the SETI@home search for intelligent life in the universe willsoon be able to join an Internet-based search for dust grains originatingfrom stars millions of light years away.

In a new project called Stardust@home, University of California, Berkeley,researchers will invite Internet users to help them search for a few dozensubmicroscopic grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA's Stardustspacecraft and due to return to Earth in January 2006.snip-------------------------------------------------------------

We went to a comet to catch some grains from long, long ago. In thebook/movie Andromeda Strain http://www.campusi.com/isbn_0345378482.htm somebiologists speculate that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrials,those life forms are likely to be--like most life on earth--one-celled orsmaller creatures, more comparable to bacteria than little green men. -LRK -

Well don't worry, we have been pelted by many tons of cosmic dust each dayor so I am told.

--------------------------------------------------------------http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/dust/dust.htmsnipMany tons of dust grains, including samples of asteroids and comets, fallfrom space onto the Earth's atmosphere each day. An even larger amount ofspacecraft debris particulates reenter the Earth's atmosphere every day.Once in the stratosphere this "cosmic dust" and spacecraft debris joinsterrestrial particles such as volcanic ash, windborne desert dust and pollengrains. High flying aircraft with special sticky collectors capture thisdust as it falls through the stratosphere, before it becomes mixed withEarth dust. The ultra-clean Cosmic Dust Laboratory, established in 1981 tohandle particles one-tenth the diameter of a human hair, curates over 2000cosmic dust particles and distributes samples to over 30 investigators.snip--------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe the next Moon walkers will take along a roll of sticky fly paper tocatch some Solar Wind samples and any comet dust we might be flying throughduring those meteor shower days. - LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast30nov_1.htmsnipNovember 30, 2001: Vivid, colorful streaks of light. A ghostly flash.Strange crackling noises and twisting smoky trails. Add to those a cup ofhot cocoa, and you have all the ingredients for a delightful meteor shower... on Earth.

NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in Utah DesertNASA's Stardust sample return mission returned safely to Earth when thecapsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles successfully toucheddown at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time (3:10 a.m. Mountain time) in the desert saltflats of the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range.

Ten years of planning and seven years of flight operations were realizedearly this morning when we successfully picked up our return capsule off ofthe desert floor in Utah," said Tom Duxbury, Stardust project manager atNASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The Stardust project hasdelivered to the international science community material that has beenunaltered since the formation of our solar system."

Stardust released its sample return capsule at 9:57 p.m. Pacific time (10:57p.m. Mountain time) last night. The capsule entered the atmosphere fourhours later at 1:57 a.m. Pacific time (2:57 a.m. Mountain time). The drogueand main parachutes deployed at 2:00 and 2:05 a.m. Pacific time,respectively (3:00 and 3:05 a.m. Mountain time).

"I have been waiting for this day since the early 1980s when DeputyPrincipal Investigator Dr. Peter Tsou of JPL and I designed a mission tocollect comet dust," said Dr. Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigatorfrom the University of Washington, Seattle. "To see the capsule safely backon its home planet is a thrilling accomplishment."

The sample return capsule's science canister and its cargo of comet andinterstellar dust particles will be stowed inside a special aluminumcarrying case to await transfer to the Johnson Space Center, Houston, whereit will be opened. NASA's Stardust mission traveled 2.88 billion milesduring its seven-year round-trip odyssey. Scientists believe these precioussamples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets andthe origins of the solar system.

Some awfully happy team members in the control room at JPL watched thesample return capsule from NASA's Stardust mission glide down for a softlanding at the Utah Test and Training Range. It happened at 2:10 a.m.Mountain time on Sunday, Jan. 15.

Tucked inside the capsule: particles from comet Wild 2 and from interstellardust -- the stuff that streams between the stars. Since comets are believedto be the frozen leftovers from our solar system's formation, scientiststhink this precious space cargo will help answer a lot of questions aboutcomets and our solar system.

The spacecraft's 7-year, 2.88 billion mile journey to a comet and back againbegan winding down at 10:57 p.m. Mountain time on Saturday night, when thecraft released its capsule for final descent to Earth. The capsule's twoparachutes opened and helped to deposit the capsule gently on the ground inthe Utah desert.

Helicopters then swooped down to pick up the capsule. It was carried to atemporary cleanroom nearby at the US Army Dugway Proving Ground. Thoseeagerly-awaited samples inside will go to NASA's Johnson Space Center inHouston. The tiny particles will then be tested in labs around the world,using ultra state-of-the-art equipment.

Strange stuff called 'aerogel' that looks like a semi-transparent, bluecloud, but that is solid, is carrying captured comet dust to Earth for aJan. 15, 2006, landing in a Utah desert.

In January 2004, the Stardust spacecraft flew within 147 miles (236kilometers) of the comet Wild 2 (VILT-TWO) and survived the high-speedimpact of millions of dust particles and small rocks up to nearly two-tenthsof an inch (one-half centimeter) across. With its tennis-racket-shapedcollector extended, Stardust captured thousands of comet particles in thesee-through aerogel, which includes silica and oxygen.

"It's a little bit like collecting BBs by shooting them into Styrofoam,"said Scott Sandford, an astrophysicist and Stardust mission co-investigatorbased at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "Some ofthe grains are likely to have exotic isotopic ratios that will give us anindication that we're looking at materials that aren't as old as the solarsystem, but that are, in fact, older than the solar system," Sandfordasserted.

Another mission objective was to expose the spacecraft to the interstellardust stream for 150 days to grab particles. After collecting them, theaerogel collector retracted into the spacecraft's capsule. Stardust will bethe first mission to capture and return a substantial sample from outsideEarth's moon system.

Making sure that precious comet and interstellar particles imbedded in theaerogel are not affected by earthly contaminants was an important task tocomplete before the Stardust spacecraft was launched on Feb. 7, 1999, fromCape Canaveral Air Station, Florida. aboard a Delta II rocket.

"Under Dr. Sandford's guidance, I performed the lab analysis of the aerogelusing infrared (IR) light to determine the level of organic contamination,"said Max Bernstein, a scientist at NASA Ames. "These and other preliminary lab tests ultimately led the Stardust aerogel development team to devise a bake-vacuum-bake cycle to reduce the carbon content in aerogel," Bernstein said.

"Aerogel is made mostly of sand (silica), and what we're interested in isthe organic material in the cometary samples," Bernstein said. "We measuredorganic contamination in aerogel early on. We raised a concern, and PeterTsou and the aerogel team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,Calif., devised a method to reduce carbon content in aerogel by a factor of10."

Infrared light that astronomers use to detect organic molecules in spacealso can be used to measure organic molecules in the laboratory. In theirlaboratory, Ames scientists shined IR light though a piece of an early batchof test aerogel, and they saw organic contamination. Because infrared islight that is not visible to the human eye, scientists use special detectorsto 'see' IR. If scientists detect a specific IR color scheme, they can tellthat a specific molecular fragment is moving and is present in the sample ofmaterial they are examining.

"If you understand that color scheme, then when you make the measurement,you can say, 'ah hah, I spotted colors corresponding to a carbon-hydrogenmotion, so there must be carbons and hydrogen in the aerogel, not justsilicon and oxygen,'" Bernstein explained. "Thanks in part to ourmeasurements, we now have cleaner aerogel, which is flying on the Stardustspacecraft."

The returning Stardust capsule will strike Earth's atmosphere at eight miles(12.8 kilometers) per second - more than 10 times faster than a speedingbullet. That is fast enough to go from San Francisco to Los Angeles in onlyone minute. The 101-pound (45.7 kilogram) conical object will hurtle throughthe atmosphere and slow before the spacecraft finally parachutes down toEarth in a Utah dry lake. The landing will occur on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006,at about 3 a.m. MST, in a restricted area - the Utah Test and TrainingRange, located southwest of Salt Lake City.

"There will be a team of scientists at Johnson Space Center who will assesswhat we actually got back from the comet so we can verify we did get auseful sample," Sandford said. "A small portion of the samples will then beused to make a preliminary study of the returned material. After thepreliminary examination is complete, all the samples will be made availableto the general scientific community for more detailed study. My guess ispeople will be asking for and working on these samples for decades to come."

p2p news / p2pnet: The first vehicle to scoop particles from the tail ofcomet Wild 2 and collect interstellar dust has safely returned to earthafter a 4.7 billion kilometer (3 billion-mile) journey.

Touch-down was in Utah's Salt Lake Desert at 10:12 GMT.

This aerogel array was mounted on top of the Stardust spacecraft to collectthe samples and now the Stardust space ship is back home, scientists wantpeople with computers to help them search for a few dozen submicroscopicgrains of interstellar dust.

Project Stardust@home is being organized by the University of California,Berkeley, and under it, volunteer surfers will be asked to help find theinfinitesimally tiny particles with a web-based virtual microscope developedby computer scientist David Anderson, director of the SETI@home project, andphysics graduate student Joshua Von Korff.

Andrew Westphal, a UC Berkeley senior fellow and associate director of thecampus's Space Sciences Laboratory, developed the technique NASA will use todigitally scan the aerogel in which the interstellar dust grains areembedded.

"Like SETI@home, which is the world's largest computer, we hopeStardust@home will also be a large computer, though more of a neuralnetwork, using brains together to find these grains," Bryan Mendez of theCenter for Science Education at the Space Sciences Laboratory is quoted assaying.

Mendez and Nahide Craig, assistant research astronomer at the laboratory,plan to create K-12 curricula around the Stardust@home project and to getlocal astronomy groups to boost participation.

In an experiment using a special air gun, particles shot into aerogel athigh velocities leave carrot-shaped trails in the substance, says the story,going on:

"Based on previous measurements of interstellar dust by both the Ulysses andGalileo spacecrafts, Westphal expects to find approximately 45 grains ofsubmicroscopic dust in the collector, a mosaic of tiles of lightweightaerogel forming a disk about 16 inches in diameter - nearly a square foot inarea - and half an inch thick. Though those searching for pieces of Wild 2'stail will easily be able to pick out the thousands of cometary dust grainsembedded in the front of the detector, finding the 45 or so grains ofinterstellar dust stuck in the back of the detector won't be so easy."

But the virtual microscope will allow anyone with an Internet connection toscan some of the 1.5 million pictures of the aerogel for tracks left by thetiny bits of speeding dust.

Each picture will cover an area smaller than a grain of salt.

The web-based virtual microscope will be made available in mid-March, evenbefore all the scans have been completed in a cleanroom at Houston's JohnsonSpace Center, says UC Berkeley News.

"In all, Westphal expects to need some 30,000 person hours to look throughthe scanned images at least four times," it states. "Searching each pictureshould take just a few seconds, but the close attention required as theviewer repeatedly focuses up and down through image after image willprobably limit the number a person can scan in one sitting."

Each volunteer will have to pass a test where he or she is asked to find thetrack in a few test samples.

If at least two of the four examining each image report a track, it'll bepassed to 100 more volunteers for verification and if at least 20 of thesereport a track, "UC Berkeley undergraduates who are expert at spotting dustgrain tracks will confirm the identification," the story continues."Eventually, the grain will be extracted for analysis.

"Discoverers will get to name their dust grains."

Once the grains are identified and analyzed, Westphal hopes the informationwill tell about the internal processes of distant stars such as supernovas,flaring red giants or neutron stars that produce interstellar dust and alsogenerate the heavy elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen necessary forlife.

Craig and Mendez are now creating a teacher's lesson guide that uses theStardust@home Virtual Microscope to teach students about the origins of thesolar system.